Song of Surrender

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

B.M.Sundaram

10.10.1934

Birthdays
& AnniversariesBM. Sundaram is hailed as a multilinguist,
research scholar, musicologist, writer, composer and an eloquent speaker. On 27
March 2016, students of Vani Sangeetha Vidya Gurukulam where he teaches music, organised
a function to celebrate the 81st
birthday of the octogenarian.

Bala Meenakshisundaram Sundaram – popularly known as BMS – derives
his name from his mother Balambal and his father Meenakshisundaram Pillai, the
great tavil maestro from Needamangalam. He was born on 10 October 1934. He was
the first disciple to learn music in gurukulavasam from Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna.
He has a M.A. in Music and Ph.D in Musicology.

He served All India Radio, Pondicherry, as Music Composer and
Music Producer for over a decade. It provided him opportunities to come in
contact with the great musicians of his time. During his tenure he arranged for
several “Invited Audience” programmes in many towns. While serving in AIR-Pondicherry,
he organised several music recitals on the sixth day of the Natyanjali Festival
after five days of dance programmes at the Chidambaram Nataraja temple. For as
long as he was in AIR, these programmes were an annual feature.

He was a guest lecturer of Indian Music at Wheaton University, Massachusetts,
U.S.A. Though he wrote monologues and submitted papers on various aspects of music,
he first authored Palai Azhi (on the ascents and descents of more than 4000
raga scales). Most of his works were written and published only after he
retired from All India Radio. He might have collected the details and
information for these books even while he was in service but the books were printed
later.

His writings can be classified broadly into two categories –
musicological and historical. Books such as Palai Azhi, TalaSangraha and Tana Varna Tarangini are writings on the grammar of music. In Tala Sangraha, he has given the details of some 1100 talas,
while Tana Varna Tarangini
deals with 880 varnams
(with all available pathantara variations). BMS himself has composed 22 tana varnams.

In the second category, he wrote books containing hundreds of brief
biographies. At that time, details about vidwans who lived in smaller towns and
villages in Tamil Nadu were known only to a few. His first work in this
category, Mangala Isai
Mannargal, consisted of details
biographical, and of the musical lineage and unique expertise of 126 nagaswaram
and tavil maestros. He also listed a similar number of vidwans who lived in the
17th and 18th centuries.

His next book, in 2003, was on dancers Marabu Tantha
Manickangal (Jewels of Tradition). It
covered the biographical details of 121dancers mostly of those
belonging to the devadasi tradition. Tocomplete the folio, Marabu Vazhi Natya
Peraasaangal (GreatMasters of the Dance Tradition), covering the
lives and achievementsof nattuvanars was published.